Major peoples: the Banda (30%), the
Baya-Mandjia (29%), and the Mbaka (7%). There are clearly defined ethnic
zones; the forest region, inhabited by Bantu groups, the Mbaka, Lissongo,
Mbimu, and Babinga; the river banks, populated by the Sango, Yakoma, Baniri,
and Buraka; and the savannah region, where the Banda, Sande, Sara, Ndle, and
Bizao, Europeans 6,500 (including 1,500 French)

History: Great stone formations near
Bouar suggest the existence of an ancient civilization in the northwest, and
stone tools found in the east indicate that people lived in this region
several thousand years ago. But most of the country's present-day
inhabitants are refugees from Muslim slave-raiders in adjacent parts of
Africa in the 19th century. The raiders' relentless pursuit resulted in the
depopulation of vast regions of the C.A.R. between the 1880s and 1915.

About the same time, French military
expeditions reached the area, and in the 1890s the region was annexed to the
colony of the French Congo; subsequently it became a separate colony in
French Equatorial Africa. Internal self-government was granted by the French
in 1958. In 1960 the Central African Republic became independent.

David Dacko became the first president after
independence. Dacko was ousted by the military in 1965 and replaced by Jean
Bedel BOKASSA, who proclaimed the state an empire in 1976, and crowned
himself emperor in 1977 in a lavish ceremony.

In 1979 he was ousted in a
bloodless coup backed by France and led by Dacko, who re-established the
republic and became president. Dacko, in turn, was ousted in 1981 in a
military coup led by Gen. Andre Kolingba. A new constitution approved in a
1986 referendum made the C.A.R. a one-party state with an elected
legislature; Kolingba was elected to a further 6-year term as president.

Bokassa voluntarily returned to the C.A.R. in
1986; he was publicly tried in a civilian court and sentenced to death in
1987 on several counts of murder and massive theft of state funds. His
sentence was later commuted to 20 years of hard labour.

Legislative elections were held in 1987. In
1991, after increasing public demands for democratization, the constitution
was amended to create the post of prime minister. Multiple parties were
legalized, but Kolingba was reluctant to accede to further reforms.